Joel Oppenheimer
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Joel Lester Oppenheimer (Jacob Hammer) (February 18, 1930 – October 11, 1988) was an
American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...
associated with both the
Black Mountain poets The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid-20th-century American ''avant-garde'' or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Background Although it lasted only twenty-three ...
and the New York School. He was the first director of the St. Marks Poetry Project (1966–68). Though a poet, Oppenheimer was perhaps better known for his columns in the ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
'' from 1969 to 1984.


Life and work

Oppenheimer was born in
Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...
, attended
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
for one year in 1948, spent less than one semester at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, and in 1950 enrolled at
Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's educational ...
in North Carolina. At Black Mountain, he studied with
Paul Goodman Paul Goodman (1911–1972) was an American writer and public intellectual best known for his 1960s works of social criticism. Goodman was prolific across numerous literary genres and non-fiction topics, including the arts, civil rights, decen ...
and poet
Charles Olson Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modern American poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York ...
, became friends with
Fielding Dawson Fielding Dawson (August 2, 1930 – January 5, 2002, aged 71) was a Beat-era author of short stories and novels, and a student at Black Mountain College. He was also a painter and collagist whose works were seen in several books of poetry and ...
and
Ed Dorn Edward Merton Dorn (April 2, 1929 – December 10, 1999, aged 70) was an American poet and teacher often associated with the Black Mountain poets. His most famous work is '' ''Gunslinger'. Overview Dorn was born in Villa Grove, Illinois. ...
, and worked in the school's print shop. In his earliest poetry, Oppenheimer shows clearly the influence of
William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
, but he soon developed his own style. While at Black Mountain, Oppenheimer met and married his first wife, Rena Furlong. He left the school in January 1953 without taking a degree, eventually settling in New York and working in a print shop while continuing to write poetry. His first publications were ''The Dancer'' (1951), as ''Jargon'', no. 2, 1951, by The Sad Devil Press/Black Mountain College; ''The Dutiful Son'' (1956) by Jonathan Williams's Jargon Society, reprinted by LeRoi Jones's Totem Press in 1961, ''The Love Bit and Other Poems'' (1962), again with Totem. His satiric Western drama ''The Great American Desert'' was the first play produced by Robert Nichols, directed by Lawrence Kornfeld, who had been with the
Living Theatre The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/po ...
, at the
Judson Poets' Theatre The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. ...
. It opened on November 18, 1961. Oppenheimer's poetry has been collected in two volumes: Robert J. Bertholf (editor, introduction), ''Collected Later Poems of Joel Oppenheimer'', with eleven drawings by John Dobbs, The Poetry Collection, 1997 and ''Names & Local Habitations (Selected Earlier Poems 1951–1972)'', editor Jonathan Williams, The Jargon Society, 1988. He also published two nonfiction works, ''The Wrong Season'' (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973), about the New York Mets, and ''Marilyn Lives'' (Delilah, 1984), on Marilyn Monroe. ''Drawing from Life'', posthumously published in 1997, gathered 92 columns written for the ''Village Voice''.
Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...
wrote that ''Drawing from Life'' "emphasizes several favorite themes: baseball, politics, and the role of the changing seasons in our lives". Oppenheimer died at 58 of lung cancer in
Henniker, New Hampshire Henniker is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, the reported total population of the town was 6,185, although the figure, 27.9% greater than the 2010 population, has been questioned by local officials. ...
on October 11, 1988.New York Times obituary
/ref> ''Don't Touch the Poet: The Life and Times of Joel Oppenheimer'', by Lyman Gilmore, was published by Talisman Press in 1998.


Publications

*''The Dutiful Son'' (Jonathan Williams / Jargon, 1956) *''The Great American Desert'' (
Grove Press Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...
, 1961) *''The Love Bit and Other Poems'' (Totem Press / Corinth Books, 1962) *''In Time: Poems 1962-1968'' (Bobbs Merrill, 1969) *''On Occasion'' (Bobbs Merrill, 1973) *''The Wrong Season'' (Macmillan Publishing Company, 1973) *''Pen's Eyes: Stories'' (Mulch Press, 1974) *''The Woman Poems'' (Bobbs Merrill, 1975) *''Acts'' (Preishable Press, 1976) *''Marilyn Lives!'' (Putnam Pub Group, 1981) *''Houses'' (
White Pine Press White Pine Press is an American, nonprofit, literary press located in Buffalo, New York, publishing poetry, fiction, essays, and world literature in translation. The press was founded by poet, translator, editor and publisher Dennis Maloney in 1 ...
, 1981) *''At Fifty: A Poem'' (St. Andrews Press, 1982) *''The Ghost Lover'' (Arthur Mann Kaye, 1983) *''New Spaces: Poems, 1975–1983'' (
Black Sparrow Press Black Sparrow Press is a New England based independent book publisher, known for literary fiction and poetry. History Black Sparrow was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1966 by John Martin in order to publish the works of Charles Bukowski ...
, 1985) *''Why Not'' (Press of the Good Mountain, 1985) *''Generations'' (Elaine Juska & Jordan Davies, 1986) *''Collected Later Poems of Joel Oppenheimer'' (State Univ at Buffalo Poetry Rare, 1997)


References


External links


Joel Oppenheimer Papers at the University of Connecticut
*
''Book Rags''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oppenheimer, Joel 1930 births 1988 deaths Jewish American poets Black Mountain poets Black Mountain College alumni Cornell University alumni People from Yonkers, New York 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers Deaths from lung cancer Deaths from cancer in New Hampshire 20th-century American Jews